San Francisco Radio Waves w/Ben Fong-Torres

New Bay Area Radio Hall of Famers’ 

lovefest

By Ben Fong-Torres, Radio Columnist, San Francisco Cheonicle    October 8, 2014

For too many years, the inductions of new members got bogged down by one or two people who went well beyond set time limits. Programs dragged on, and many audience members would leave before the last inductees got to be heard.

Not this year. Sure, there were a couple of people who couldn’t help rolling through the stop signs, of three minutes for presenters and six for the new Hall of Famers, but the nine inductees, 10 presenters (Sam Van Zandt brought in two), and emcee Don Bleu staged what amounted to a celebration of their passion for radio. And they did it in about an hour and 40 minutes, substantially shorter than previous inductions at which, say, Ralph Barbieri, former KNBR host, took 24 minutes for his acceptance.

It helped that the organizers — from the Broadcast Legends and the California Historical Radio Society — enforced the time limits with a set of sound effects to warn speakers that their time was up. They were, Bleu said, “the Barbieri Chimes.”

Between wisecracks, Bleu kept the show moving, beginning with DJ Norman Davis, who was presented by daughter Susie. She surveyed his Bay Area career, which went from Top 40 (KOBY and KYA), to KSFO, where in the early ’70s he’d planted “Norman’s Organic Mind Garden,” to KSAN, the free-form station where he worked for six years. Davis said that he’d actually debuted on the radio 74 years ago, when he was five. (He played “Jesus Loves Me” on his violin.) And he announced that, besides his syndicated “Midnight Flyer” blues show, he was launching a new program, “Juke Joint,” in Boise. “I still love doing radio,” he said. “I still think it’s magic.”

READ THE FULL COLUMN  HERE  AT THE CHRONICLE WEBSITE

http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/radiowaves/article/New-Bay-Area-Radio-Hall-of-Famers-lovefest-5810421.php